Archive for the ‘housekeeping’ Category
19 Kids It’s Not, But Still..
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Now that I’ve added an extra kid to my days I’ve had to implement some new strategies to help things run more smoothly. Even though it’s just three kids and not 6 or 19 (like the Duggars) things have gotten a little chaotic around here. Laundry is piling up, piles are piling up and so on and so forth. Don’t get me wrong, I DO know I just had a baby and things are going to be like this at the beginning. It doesn’t make me want to come out of my skin any less, however, when things are just a huge mess.
Many of these ideas I’ve implemented are not new. They are just new to me actually using them! And if any of these ideas help any of my readers, all the better!
*Firstly, I wake up each day and write down what absolutely has to be done that day. In the order I need to do them. And then I’ll add things I would like to do. Knowing they probably won’t get done. But, a girl can wish! I also try not to stress or worry about those extra things that probably won’t get done. They’ll get done eventually.
* I’ve had to learn to overlook messiness, unbrushed hair and non matching clothes.
*Even though I stay home, I’ve started laying out everyone’s clothes the night before. And some days I let them pick out their own clothes. Hence the non matching clothing comment above. That way the girls can get up, get dressed right away and not have to wait for me. And If I have an idea of what I’m wearing and what Jocelyn is wearing it saves precious time. Mornings are probably our most hectic times right now. We’re all hungry (or starving. Me.) for breakfast, Jocelyn needs to eat and I need to pump. All first thing.
Not a good combination. I hate making Katelyn and Madelyn wait forever for me to get around to meeting their needs. So, whatever I can do to make breakfast time run more smoothly I will do it.
*One thing my girls are constantly asking for is something to drink and a snack. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, right?
Well, when those things are asked for 10 times a day and you’re constantly saying ” In a minute!!!” and then forgetting to follow through it does become a big deal!! So, I filled several bottles with water and juice, labeled them and put them in the bottom of the fridge. That way if the girls are thirsty they can go get something to drink themselves. They love this and I don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner!
By the way, these colorful bottles are not working out so well. The girls can’t seem to keep track of the lids. So, I’ll be getting different ones. These were on clearance at Target for 40 cents so no huge loss!
I also created a snack shelf in the pantry. I opened every snack box and put the snacks in individual snack baggies, ready to go. This way at snack time, I tell the girls to go grab a snack from the pantry.
I plan on doing this with veggies and fruit in the fridge too. Just this simple step has saved a lot of time!
* I start getting in the van about 10 minutes before we actually have to be pulling out of the driveway. You don’t realize how long it takes to get everyone buckled in and settled in your vehicle until you look at the dashboard clock and see that you should have been pulling out 10 minutes ago. This has helped me get places on time more often now.
* I keep an extra supply of diapers, wipes, formula and bottled water in our van. For Madelyn, I keep extra undies, pants and an emergency pull up for accidents. That way, if I rush out and forget something, I’ll have it in the van. It has definitely saved me a couple of headaches, that’s for sure.
* I keep one of pretty much every cleaning supply and diapering supply on each floor of my house. (We have a two story house and a full basement. We use all floors to the max!!) This saves me from running up and down to get one thing. Which is super annoying!
* One word: Babywearing!
That has kept me “hands free” at the times when I’ve most needed it! I have an Ultimate Baby Wrap (Similar to a Moby) that I didn’t use with Madelyn but now use every day with Jocelyn. She loves loves loves it. She curls right up on my chest, stops fussing, and looks around or goes right to sleep. This has helped during school time and trying to cook dinner. I’ve learned that the trick to it not hurting my back is to wrap the sling around you as tight as you can. It may seem too tight but the fabric is stretchy enough to snuggle to baby in safely against you but not allow them to slowly slide down. The sliding down is what causes extra pulling on your back.,
I still have a few more tricks I need to learn but just these things have helped keep me on track.
Most of all I try to remember to cherish every second with my girls. My house will most likely still be messy when they’re twenty so why stress about it now?? I need to tell myself this MANY times a day!!
Do you have any other time saving or organizing tips? Do share!
Saying “No”.
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
I’ll admit it. I have a hard time saying “no”. Whether it be to my kids, fattening foods,church ministries, friends or adding more activities to my schedule. And when I do actually decline something (other than the fattening foods!) I feel sooo guilty! Why say “no”, when it feels so good to say “yes”, right?
What I’ve found, however, is that the guilt is not making up for the stress that is being added into my life every time I say “yes” to something. I’m finding that I’d rather feel guilty than stressed and resentful.
Do you struggle with saying “no” to people, things and activities in your life?
I’m slowly learning that saying “no” is not only a good thing, but sometimes a necessary thing. I’m learning that, in this season of my life, I am even having to say “no” to good things, and even, great things. There is just not enough time or child care! While I have small children (and am growing my family) I’m going to have to wait on certain activities and even church ministries. My focus right now is my children and my home.
Church ministries are like crack to me. I love doing them. I love being part of them. Heck, I like starting them! There’s just something that draws me to that sign up sheet and makes me want to sign my name to yet another activity or Bible study. I get this rush of good feelings and excitement at the thought of being a part of a wonderful Bible study or hosting church cookouts. But after the initial rush wears off and the reality of the commitment sets in I start to get resentful at the time it takes. I start noticing that I’m not at home as much, that my housework is piling up, that I’m snapping at my kids more because I’m busy trying to get caught up on stuff that piled up while I was taking a part in another activity I signed up for. Back before I had children taking a part in all of this stuff was a lot easier. Now that I have children my focus needs to be on raising and mothering them.
For instance, here’s a list of things I’d love to be doing or starting right now:
-Hosting a weekly Bible study at my house.
-Starting a drama group at church.
-Singing monthly at the Christian coffee house close by.
-Starting a mother’s group/ play group.
These are all great things and things I really enjoy. But right now I just have to say “NO” to them! There isn’t enough time. And if I tried to keep up with all of this I’d eventually become stressed and resentful and no fun to live with! Right now my focus needs to be at home. My family needs me. My children need my love and unstressed, undivided attention during this period in their lives.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven”.
This is not to say I’ve given up on all activities and ministries. I have a pretty full plate as it is! Here’s a list of what I/ we are doing in the fall:
-Driving Katelyn half and hour to school and back every day.
-Soccer for Katelyn (thankfully only once a week!).
- Dance for both girls (also once a week).
- Mission Friends on Wednesday nights. ( We will no longer be doing Awana at the other church. I’m teaching the youngest group of children about missions in our new Wednesday night ministry for kids at our church).
-Choir (The rehearsal happens to conveniently fall after Wednesday night activities so I’m doing two things on one night of the week)
As you can see that is plenty for our family right now. Mike has a couple of new things up sleeve as well but those need to be worked out. His time is mostly taken up with work!
We have a new motto we’re trying to apply to our lives and our home right now (oh, especially our home!!): SIMPLIFY!!!! Sometimes, (not all the time) God can teach us and use us even more when we learn to say ” no” ! ( Not to Him, of course)
Another thing I’m having to learn to say “no” to is PERFECTIONISM. My schedule, my home, my children and myself are not going to look perfect or be perfect. I don’t think I’m EVER going to get my house to look exactly the way I want it to at this point in my life. I have to stop stressing about it and do the best I can. And then MOVE ON!!
How about you? Do you have a problem with saying “no”? C’mon, practice saying it with me : ” NNNOOOOOO”
Feels good, doesn’t it?
(Say “yes” )
The Ever Elusive Good Daily Schedule
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
I know I’ve touched on this subject before but it continues to elude me. A Good Daily Schedule. I’ve read other blogs of moms who seem to have it down. The trend I’ve noticed from those moms is that they don’t seem to watch t.v hardly ever. They also don’t seem to go anywhere other than the grocery store during the week. Is it really unrealistic for me wish and strive for a daily schedule that allows me to
Read my Bible and pray
Keep my house relatively clean (not perfect),
Get to certain parts of the house each day without the rest falling apart. Get to a good “maintaining” point each week where nothing piles up.
Exercise
Blog
Answer e-mails and blog comments
Tweet occasionally throughout the day
Stay in touch on Facebook
Read other blogs that I’ve been really wanting to get to {I hardly actually read any blogs anymore other than family on a regular basis. And even those I’m behind on}
Be on time with starting dinner {Which reminds me that I REALLY want to menu plan and do some bulk cooking days}
Not letting clean clothes sit in baskets for days on end
Iron Mike’s work clothes and get his lunch made all by around 8:00 in the evening so I can sit on the couch with Mike and watch t.v until 10{ish} when we should both be going to bed.
Oh and in between those things grocery shop, try to keep track of really good sales and deals to make the best of our grocery budget, run any errands that need to be run, and keep our Excel spreadsheet budget updated.
Does that sound unrealistic to you?
The one thing I’ve noticed about these moms who seem to have the good daily schedule down pat is that they get up 5:00 and go to bed at 9:00, don’t seem to watch t.v or ever be on Facebook! They also don’t seem to have a lot of comittments outside being of being a homemaker and mom ( Sunday school teacher, Bible studies etc).
My biggest struggle right now is trying to NOT be a slave to my household chores and errands so I can enjoy the summer with swimming, doing fun outside things, visiting with friends etc. Right now any morning spent swimming totally throws off the rest of my day. Anything that I do right now away from my house seems to take FOREVER.
Here are the stumbling points I cannot seem to get past:
Our house is too small for us and the layout is not practical for the way we live at all. My kitchen is tiny and not meant for someone who cooks a lot. It’s an eating out type of kitchen.There’s no getting around any of these facts. But changing the size of our house is not an option right now. So I have to learn to live within the space that I have.
Letting things pile up around the house. My desk piles up with not only paper stuff but random things. The basement (which is now the playroom, guestroom and laundry room) gets piled up with toys and other stuff that just needs to be put away somewhere.
Clean laundry piled up. My laundry room is in the basement. My bedrooms are on the second floor. I’m great about doing loads of laundry. Bringing the baskets of clean laundry upstairs usually takes a day or so. And then folding them and putting them away takes another day. {Or so}.
My bedroom becomes a dumping ground for stuff that needs to get put away upstairs. Because of this my bed hardly ever gets made in the morning. We just move stuff from our bed to the top of my vanity or the floor, back to my bed.
The dining room table has a habit of collecting stuff we dump on it. However, I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping that cleaned off lately.
I usually spend most of my time each day doing the same things. Loading and unloading the dishwasher,taking out and putting things away in the kitchen, wiping counters, changing trash bags, sweeping, keeping the living room straightened, keeping the dining room table cleaned off, and cooking. I feel like a hamster running in one of those exercise wheels most of the time. I feel like I’m never caught up, constantly two steps behind. Just trying to leave the house is trying most of the time. We never seem to be on time anywhere anymore. I’m usually always snapping and yelling at my girls to hurry up and stop fooling around. We need to leave NOW!. And it’s usually MY fault. I didn’t plan well and start getting ready early enough. Every single day I seem to develop amnesia as to the time it takes and the things we need to get us together to go to the different places we go.
AND IT FRUSTRATES THE HECK OUT OF ME.
I keep telling myself if I could just catch up with everything and truly find a spot for everything that needs a home, give everything a good cleaning that then I could learn to maintain every day. I could quickly, efficiently and simply run my household. And leave time in the day for more time with my girls and for truly spending time with Mike watching t.v and hanging out together. But I can never seem to catch up. I feel like most people who know me wonder what my problem is. Why am I always so taken up with cleaning my house? Why don’t I ever seem to have my act together?
I really want to use this Summer as a “guinea pig” of sorts with trying out different schedules, methods and routines. And I really want to have it down pat by the fall when all of our commitments start back up again. Because if I don’t get it together by then I’m afraid everything is just going to start falling down around me. And this is all with just two kids!!
And, yes, I’m learning to say “no” to a lot of things.
I’ve read so many house keeping and organizing books, articles and blogs. They all have great ideas. I guess I just haven’t found the ones that works for me yet. Or I’m not applying them correctly!
Help a girl out. Am I crazy?? Unrealistic? Just completely disorganized? What works for you?????
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If you choose to keep on reading here are some pictures I’ve been meaning post. These are from Katelyn’s last day of Pre-K in May. Her class went on a field trip to a playground and then to a dairy farm. Moms and siblings got to tag along too.
This is Katelyn and her best school friend, Isabel.
Madelyn spent most of the time at the playground doing this:
As they day wore on she finally got to this:
After the playground we went to the dairy farm for lunch and ice cream. Yum!
Before And After
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Here’s an idea of what my floors looked like before Mike refinished them:
Bedroom Before:
Bedroom After
Dining Room Before (with floor already sanded. It looked a lot like the Bedroom Before)
Dining Room After
Play Room Before (Again think Bedroom Before in terms of what it looked like before it was sanded)
Playroom After
Girls Bedroom After (I think I deleted the ‘before’ picture but I know I already showed you that one on an older post)
Don’t the floors look great? Those who have been to my house will especially appreciate how different and new they look. The only room that needs to be done now is the living room. We’ll actually have to stay somewhere else for about three days since we won’t be able to use our house at all while the living room is being refinished. It’s the hubbub of our house and you can’t “get there from here” without walking through the living room.
We’re slowly taking the packed boxes in the garage from our almost move in January and unpacking them. The girls are especially excited for us to find their Zhu Zhu Pets we had packed away after Christmas. It’s kind of sad for me to unpack the stuff that I had excitedly packed away thinking we were moving into a bigger house. I had thought that I wouldn’t be using that stuff again until I was UNpacking it in a new home.
*SIGH*
In unpacking these boxes we’re also taking stock of what we really need and what actually fits in this house. If the item doesn’t fit that category going to our yard sale at the end of May/ beginning of June.
I had planned another part to this post to be about the Before And After of how God has been working in me lately. Especially after the miscarriage. I realized that’s going to need a post of it’s own.
So be waiting for it!
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Katelyn update:
We’ve had several more mini bug episodes since last Wednesday. Nothing like the original one, however. She’s slept through the night a couple of times but has also gotten up several times needing reassurance that there were no bugs in the room and that they were only in her mind.
The direction and steps I’ve taken with her that are working are:
~Praying with her. Reminding her that Jesus is protecting her and He won’t allow any harm to come to her.
~Reminding her that seeing bugs or NOT seeing bugs are in her control. She chooses what she sees and she’s the boss of her bugs. If she’s seeing bugs it’s because she’s choosing to.
~Reminding her that spending the day at the doctor’s was not fun. If she continues to see bugs it means she’s sick. If she has to go to the doctor she misses out on playing with her friends. Is that what she really wants?
~ As a last resort we have also put her in the shower ( at midnight!!! Aye!!) to calm her down and soothe her and then I’ve rubbed my Neutrogena Sesame Body oil on her and told her that would help her skin feel better and smell nice. That has worked wonders. But, I’d prefer not to have to do that in the middle of the night a lot!
~Keeping more lights on.
~She’s woken up coughing which has triggered her to wake up in the middle of the night. I’ve been giving her some honey before bed and kept her humidifier going. That has also made for more restful sleep.
~ One thing I don’t want is to tell her is that certain things will keep the bugs away or any such thing. No showers to “wash the bugs off”, “special lotion that keeps bugs off and keeps them away”, “sprays that will protect her room” or ” a special doll that wards off bugs”. I feel like that is just going to feed into her fear. I don’t want her depending on those things. Once that special lotion doesn’t “work” anymore or the doll is protecting her anymore we’ll have to move on to some different, magical thing. I want her to face the reality that there are NO bugs to “keep away”. It’s all in her mind and that’s where she needs to fight them.
She got up three times last night. The first time she kept telling me ” No, mom, there’s reeeaallly bugs in my room this time. Really!” And kept looking under her pillow and her blankets and on her arms and legs. She screamed when I pulled the blanket away to show her there were no bugs. After (irritably) reminding her that she was choosing to see bugs and that if she kept seeing them we’d end up at the doctor again (which she definitely doesn’t want) she settled down. Only to wake up two more times. Thankfully each episode lasted between ten and twenty minutes. I’d much rather be getting up in the middle of the night with a new infant! That’s what’s supposed to be happening. Not with my four and a half year old daughter who is hallucinating.
I called her pediatrician’s office to day for the result of her Strep test since they haven’t called me yet.
Not getting enough sleep is really messing up my daily routine. I’ve been sleeping in which throws off my Bible reading and exercising (meaning, non existent). It also sets a bad tone for the day because I’m irritable and out of sorts.
Here’s for a restful week and winning the battle of the bugs!
Have a great Monday!
Paint And Grocery Budget Update
Monday, April 12th, 2010
Last Monday Mike took the day off to get some painting done around the house. We had three rooms to paint and he got them all done by Wednesday night of last week! Some of the paint we’ve had for several months. I love how the rooms turned out. It’s amazing how a little paint cane change the look and feel of your house.
I’ll show you the girls’ bedroom first:
Here’s the before
Pardon the wall border mess. Mike was in the middle of peeling it off. I don’t think I’ll ever do border again! What a mess! This room was the nursery and still had the original nursery theme used by both Katelyn and Madelyn when they were babies. It was kind of bittersweet putting all of it away. I can use it again if I need to in a different room someday!
Here’s the after!
It’s a little bold but I think once we get all their stuff and other decorations on the walls it will tone it down a bit. Mike ruined it a little bit for me when he started calling it ” The Dora room” because of the color. The pink/orange combo was also supposed to be 60/40 not 50/50 like it ended up.
Mike wants to sand their floor and re-stain it then we’re going to move them back in. I can’t wait! We got a free set of bunk beds from a man at church so once we buy the mattresses we’ll set that up in their. We won’t set them up as bunkbeds ,though, since we feel they’re a little young for bunkbeds still. I’m not going to have a real “theme” for their room since they have an eclectic mix of stuff already. Their bedding is Disney Princess (they got it from Nana and Papa at Christmas)but their new valances are some mod looking flowers with pink and orange in them. Because the princess bedding has a little orange in it ( I think!) it should go fine with the pink and orange on the walls.
Here’s the color of our bedroom walls. This is the first time we’ve painted in there since we moved in 6 and a half years ago. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color. It’s called “Tibetan Orange”. If my room had been clean I would have shown you the whole room. But it looked terrible so I’ll have to show you a picture once wall art and picture frames are back on the walls and my bed is made (with the new bedding I got for Christmas!).
I don’t have a before but just picture a dingy off white with ugly holes in the wall!
The color does darken our room a bit. That’s my only complaint about this color.
Here’s the color that we painted the playroom. The playroom was originally the dining room so I hope any prospective buyers will like this color for a dining room. I love it, although I know it’s another bright color and some may not.
Any of you who have been reading my blog for awhile have caught occasional glimpses of the walls in this room. They were the same dingy off white as my bedroom.
This color is called ” Japanese Fern”.
All in all I’m happy with it! When we had been looking at moving our realtor had kept telling us to paint everything neutral. But a) We already had most of the paint and b) Maybe I’m different, but I liked the houses that had the bold, trendy colors. And if someone were to like our house enough to buy it in the future, it’s just paint! They can repaint it if they want. But I think these colors add a little something to the appearance on the inside.
Just my two cents!
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Grocery Shopping On A Budget Update
I mentioned several weeks ago that our grocery budget was being cut almost in half once we started budgeting when we started attending Financial Peace University. I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to manage on $105 a week in groceries when we had been buying $200 a week before. Well, we’ve managed!!! And done pretty well at it too. And I haven’t been using coupons all that much. Not because I don’t like them or clip them. I do. I just haven’t been able to find too many coupons of stuff we actually buy. I’ve shopped with my list, kept a running tally with my calculator and bought a lot of store brand stuff.
Note: I have found that store brand stuff is not always just like the name brand stuff like many people claim. I bought store brand cheerios and gave them to Katelyn. I didn’t tell her they were different cheerios. After taking one bite she said ” What are these? I don’t like these Cheerios.”
Store brand dish washing powder has also not cleaned like Cascade. As soon as I’m done with the box I have I’m going back to Cascade.
I also switched grocery stores. I started shopping at the cheapest grocery store in our area, Market Basket. I’ve never liked them because the inside is usually ugly, old and sometimes not even that clean. But, boy, is my grocery bill smaller by shopping there. Like Mike reminded me, I’m not shopping because of the look of the store. If I want a nicer store I also have to pay higher prices. And I’ve found that the one I use is not as bad as I remembered and has a pretty good selection. Menu planning has really helped and not buying a lot of “extras”.
I don’t buy yogurt cups anymore. I buy the container o’ yogurt instead and spoon it into small cups. I don’t buy a lot of snack items i.e bags of chips, 3 or 4 different kinds of crackers, cookies etc. I don’t buy a lot of frozen stuff anymore. I don’t buy a large selection of breakfast cereal like I used to. I stick to Cheerios and Kashi Go Lean Crunch. Buying in bulk has helped. All of these small changes have made a difference.
I’m trying to make more stuff from scratch. I do still want to get the couponing thing down. My problem is finding coupons that I can use! I’ve also been price comparing( more than I ever have. EVER!) . I found 2% gallons of milk at Sam’s way cheaper than our cheapest grocery store here. Sam’s was selling them for $1.85 a gallon! I don’t know if that’s permanent or not but I grabbed 4 gallons. (Expiration on 4/24) I felt so proud of myself for noticing! I used to not really notice the price of grocery items unless they were outrageous. And when I used a coupon here or there I thought I was doing a great thing.
I’ve found that living on $105 (or less!!) a week is very doable.
Happy Monday!
Sleeping, Eating And Drinking Our Budget
Monday, March 15th, 2010
I wish we were doing the above things mentioned in my post title because we’re rolling in money. But, alas, that’s not the case! We’re sleeping, eating and drinking money because that’s all we talk about right now! And that’s a good thing. Ever since we started Financial Peace University 3 weeks ago (tomorrow) we’ve been talking about our budget. We’ve been tweaking it. We’ve been looking at every single detail and giving every single penny a spot to go. And it’s been hard work! Oh how I’m tired of it. We were warned that the first few weeks would be hard. I think it’s been harder for us since our finances were in such a sorry state! This is forcing both of us to sit down and take responsibility for getting control of our money and money’s future. Mike spent hours on Saturday putting everything into excel and tweaking this or that. Then, a bill for my Real Simple magazine subscription comes in (it’s getting canceled!) and everything must get tweaked again for this month. Then something else will pop up we forgot about and the tweaking will start all over again! It’s been a painstaking process but a fantastic one for Mike and me. I hate it. I’ll admit it. My monthly” blow” money has already been spent before I touched it. On what? Girl Scout cookies and the book for our current Wednesday night Bible study! Girl Scout cookies!!!! I like GS cookies but not that much. I was at a friends house a few weeks ago and noticed her adorable little girl was selling them. They were sitting on the floor taunting me. I was hungry and those Samoas were calling my name. So, I bought (with an IOU), 6 boxes. I know… I know! I didn’t have to buy that many! Well, as of last Wednesday I still IOU’d my friend! Enter my monthly personal spending cash.
I hate talking about money. I hate worrying about it. I hate excel spreadsheets!! But, after we’re done with this class and on our way to financial peace and freedom I probably won’t feel that way anymore! It’s good for both of us to be this involved in our day to day finances. Mike has never been this involved. He usually left all that stuff to me and generally kind of knew where we were at. Now he’s neck deep in our finances! Dave Ramsey said that for the first three months or so our budget won’t work right and we’ll be tweaking and fixing it until we get it down pat. Well, that’s definitely happening for us!
Oh, and on a side note, we discovered we paid $30,000+ in taxes last year! Yes, THIRTY THOUSAND! Thank you Taxachussetts! I hope the able bodied people who don’t have jobs because they refuse to look for work are enjoying OUR money while my husband works until 1 am. I’ll probably get some negative comments about this. ” You hate the poor”. “You’re selfish” or ” That’s not a very Christian attitude”. I don’t hate the poor. Mike and I have actually been quite generous in helping those in need and we’ll continue to do that. The more we get our finances in order now they more we’ll be able to give in the future. We look forward to that part! The Bible actually says that if you don’t work than you don’t eat! I’m all for helping someone in need. However, people who are poor because they are lazy don’t deserve my hard earned money. There are way too many people who take advantage of our welfare system and I begrudge every single cent that goes to them.
Anyway, I digress….
We’ve started the envelope cash system Dave Ramsey talks about and it’s really cramping our style. Which is a good thing! As I mentioned before we used to spend anywhere from $ 700-800 a month on groceries. We’ve decided on a $125 a week budget to see how well we do with it. Yesterday, we went grocery shopping for the first time since we’ve installed our cash only, $125 a week food budget. Because Mike gets paid every two weeks we took out $250 to last us for those two weeks. The plan was/is to plan all of our meals, including snacks, for the next two weeks. Then write down exactly all of the ingredients to what I’m going to need. Then each week I’m going to check what I have in my kitchen already and try to plan meals around that first before I buy anything new. Then go from there with my list. Then, I’m going to give couponing and planning my meals around what’s on sale my best effort. We decided to make a trip to Sam’s a make a big bulk buy to kick off our new grocery budget plan. We knew this first trip would be expensive but that the next few food shopping ventures I went on would cost way less because I wouldn’t need to buy as much. Well, not only did we use up our $250 of grocery money at Sam’s we also used almost all of the money from our monthly “Clothing” envelope!! We walked around Sam’s keeping a running total of our purchases on a calculator and writing certain prices down so we could compare them with our grocery store. I’ve never seen Mike so interested in “price per pound” before! I never thought I’d be one of those people with the calculator walking around the grocery store. But… there we were! It was very eye opening and I learned a lot from that one trip. And boy… was it hard to part with that money!
Once we left Sam’s we still needed to buy a few things from our grocery store. So I took the cash I had left for the grocery store from our “Clothing” envelope, my list and my calculator and went for it. I ended up not being able to buy everything on my list. After adding everything up from my cart I realized that some of the stuff we’d just have to do without this week. It was nothing major. One of the things I put back was yogurt cups for the girls. I had already grabbed a tub of plain yogurt so I figured they’ll have to do with plain yogurt mixed with something if they want yogurt the next couple of weeks. The other one was juice. We decided the girls would have to drink water once the juice we have is gone! Now, today, we’ve come to realize I forgot butter and bird food! So, out of desperation we’re taking money from our mothly “Doctor” envelope (copay money for chiropractor or unexpected doctor visit) to pay for those things. It won’t be like this every grocery trip, of course. In fact, I’m feeling pretty confident we can keep our grocery bill to $125 a week or less with coupons, meal planning , buying generic and buying at Sam’s. Sadly, I won’t be buying some of the higher end, all natural, organic etc etc foods anymore until we get well under way with this. I’ll admit…I’m a name brand snob. For some reason name brand cereal must taste better than store brand in my mind! And I know that’s not always the case. And even if it is the case we’ll just have to make do! The “sacrifice” will be worth it in the end.
Mike and I made a huge break through with our purchasing habits a couple of weeks ago. Our couch finally bit the dust and we didn’t go out and buy a new one with our credit card. Instead, we brought the love seat from the playroom into the living room and moved our recliner next to it. Then brought one of dining room set captains chairs in as extra seating. We actually like it better! I also hung some new curtains I’ve had for over 6 months up in the living room. Here’s our new living room arrangement.
This is now my quiet time corner. Below is what my old quiet time corner looks like now:
And here is a close up shot of the curtains I got on clearance at Home Depot. I think they go great with my pillows and living room decor!
I’ll be posting about how things are going with our FPU class as we get further into the study. This should be interesting….
Oh, and Crystal at Money Saving Mom has great tutorials on menu planning, couponing, shopping sales and grocery shopping on a shoe string budget.
Everything AND the kitchen sink!
Monday, February 8th, 2010
If ever there ever was a post with a mish mash of stuff, this is it! The kitchen sink included!
Way back when we thought we were moving( you know, two weeks ago…) Mike put up a much needed back splash behind our stove and sink. He used left over tile from our bathroom when we renovated that. I thought that was a very smart and frugal move on his part. The tile is pretty and very neutral in color. I took some pictures so my mom could see how it came out. My mom knows how ugly my walls were behind the stove and sink so she’ll really appreciate how much better it looks. You’re welcome to appreciate Mike’s handiwork too.
As usual, I wish I had taken a “before” picture but didn’t think of doing that while Mike was working on this. This may not seem like a big deal but we threw away our ugly, moldy (yes! it was moldy on the bottom, unbeknown to us!) dish drainer and bought a smaller one. The old one used to be to the right of the sink, taking up a lot of that space and making it look cluttered and ugly. I also had a cookie cooling rack laying there too for an extra spot to air dry dishes. We cleaned that area out and I put a smaller, prettier, non-moldy dish drainer to the left of the sink. It looks much neater and nicer and creates extra counter space to the right of the sink. I also took my dish soap, hand soap and sponges out of an ugly, plastic Tupperware container and put them in a glass pie dish. ( I never make pies!) It’s amazing how you get accustomed to certain areas of clutter and don’t even notice them anymore. Then once you finally notice it and make a few simple changes it makes a world of difference!
This is the back splash behind the stove. The walls were hard to keep clean and because I’m a messy cook they were usually splattered with grease and oil etc. Before Mike put up the back splash I scrubbed the wall behind the stove and to the right. It looked much better just with the walls washed. The back splash actually seems to make the kitchen look bigger and “homey-er”
And one last little detail that my mom will appreciate….
I finally changed the kitchen valance. It had a green, satiny looking valance that wasn’t hideous but wasn’t super pretty either. It was dark green. I never changed the valance after we moved in and have been ignoring it for almost 6 1/2 years! I finally put a cheerier one up. The previous owners also painted over the beautiful dark wood work around the window and doorway. Maybe now that we have time, we can sand that paint off and re-stain it.
Now we move on to my health update:
My nurse practitioner called a couple of weeks ago and said they were having trouble with the machine that reads the results of the holter heart monitor. So, I have to wear it for 24 hrs again. They’ll call me…. (hmm..I should probably follow up on that since they haven’t called me yet.)
I’m still having the same dizziness as before but have kind of gotten used to it! I’ve been taking my vitamin D and prescription iron pills. Even if those don’t help my dizziness they’re still good for me.
*If you’re a man reading this you may want to stop reading here if you don’t want to read about women issues..*
My ultrasound results came back and I have a cyst on my right ovary. That’s all the nurse said when she called. She said that could create fertility problems but from what I understand those are pretty common. So, they want me to go through two monthly cycles and then come back in for another ultrasound to see if the cyst has gone away on it’s own.
Fun stuff, right? So, we’re on a new lead with that. Not sure what will come of it but I’ll keep everyone updated.
On a side note, Katelyn just had another UTI so she was on another round of antibiotics for it. The doctor thinks she’s not wiping correctly and that’s what is causing these infections.
Now, I’ll leave you with some cute pictures of Katelyn in her dance costume. She really wanted to wear it all the time when we first got it. I’ve put it away and she’ll forget about for a bit until her recital in May.
Who Wants A Clean House?
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
I’ve become addicted lately to the show “Clean House” on the Style network. The title of this post is their slogan. (As far as I can tell!) In case you don’t know what the show is about, a group of organizers and designers go into a family’s home (usually this family’s house is overtaken with their stuff and uber messy) get them to get rid of a ton of junk stuff (not without a fight from the homeowners), sell the junk stuff in a yard sale and use that money to organize and makeover some of the rooms in the house. The results are amazing. And seeing the way some of these people live makes me feel a whole heck of a lot better about my cluttered and messy home! The show has given me a lot of inspiration for some of the work and organizing I want to do in my home. I’m becoming more and more convinced of the need to get rid of stuff. I would like to sell it and get some money for it but if that doesn’t work I’ll just put it on freecycle. I have never had a yard sale and would be interested in having one at some point. With Christmas coming up I really want to get rid of stuff before new stuff comes in. We just repainted our living room and revamped it a bit. We’re not quite done with it but almost. The next room we’re moving on to is our bedroom.
I don’t know about you, but my bedroom is the dumping ground for laundry and sundry things that go upstairs. My room never looks clean,is way cluttered and is definitely not an oasis for me. Which, I think my bedroom should be. We’ve had the same bed spread for 8 years now, plain, off white curtains, the same off white paint on the walls that was there when we moved in and the room is just….blah. And messy. It’s not very big, our bedroom furniture is huge and we have a tiny closet. So, there’s a few things working against us. But I think with a little de-cluttering, some new paint and a new bed/comforter set things will look a lot more relaxing and peaceful in there.
After living in this house for 6 years I’m finally getting around to wanting to do some work on it. It seemed overwhelming a few months back and I just didn’t want to deal with any of it. Now I’m taking it one room at a time. And if it comes down to it, one wall at a time. I’ll be posting some before and after pictures of our bedroom. I’m embarrassed to even post the “before” pictures of our bedroom!
Here are the bed sets that I’m looking at and asking for for Christmas. They are all from Kohl’s and on sale! My room right now is in plum and off white tones. So I wanted to go with something different. My furniture is dark and I like the contrast of dark browns and other shades. I’m leaning towards dark brown/teal, dark brown/blue-ish and dark brown/lavender/lilac
#1
#2
#3
What do you think? I’m leaning towards #1 and #3 right now with #1 taking lead. I would most likely paint my walls one of the lighter shades that are on the bedspread.
Which one is your favorite?
Letting Go
Monday, August 31st, 2009
So I need to vent a bit and put forth a dilemma and see what any of you have to say about it. It’s really been frustrating and I’m really at a loss how to handle it and even if I should handle it at all. For the sake of “anonymity” I’m going to call the people involved in this story a “group” so nobody is set apart in my story.
There is a group of children that Katelyn absolutely seem to worship and loves to play with. This group of children ranges from 6- 10 years of age. Which, obviously, is several years older than Katelyn. For the most part, this group of kids are pretty well behaved and polite. Except that, they are generally mean to Katelyn. They will let her play with them for a little bit and then they will suddenly decide they don’t want her around. They are constantly including and then excluding her from whatever they are doing, bossing her around, not allowing her to do certain things and manipulating her. One of them goes as far as getting up and moving away every time Katelyn tries to sit next to them. When Katelyn doesn’t get the hint the first time and moves to sit next to this child again, they will get up and move somewhere else again. For no reason at all. Other than to be spiteful. Reducing Katelyn to either screaming at them or crying. It drives me absolutely insane. I would rather she not play with them at all for my sanity’s sake but she loves.them. I would rather she just play with other kids her own age just to stop the crying and fighting. Whenever she is pretend playing she pretends that group is with her. Whenever she plans her parties she wants that group invited.
Now, before you think I am overreacting or defending my bratty child or something, I’ll say this. I know Katelyn is no angel. I know(and remember!) that when you’re an older child, playing with a younger one is something you don’t always want to do. You want the little brat to go away and play with kids his/her own age. I get that. I also get that kids are kids and aren’t perfect either. I also understand that if a child doesn’t want to sit next to another one they don’t have to. Especially if the child is obnoxious and annoying. Katelyn is not like that! She just likes to sit next to this child because she loves them! The more she seems to get upset and frustrated by them not wanting to sit by her the more they continue to do it! And what gets me even more is that this child’s parent sees this and does nothing!!
So…here’s my dilemma- What do I do? I can’t “come to her rescue” every time they exclude her. I’m not their mother and they aren’t required to play with her. Time and time again, Mike and I have told her when they start being mean to just go play somewhere else! But in the heat of the moment that is the last thing she wants to do. She wants them to let her do what they are doing. Sometimes the exclusion or the manipulation is over the petties, tiniest things.
Here are some examples:
Katelyn usually comes crying to us and says ” Mooom, they’re playing pirates and I want to be a princess pirate but they said I can’t because they don’t need another princess pirate. They said I have to be a dog instead. Waaahhh”.
This is just an example but it’s the kind of thing that happens all the time. So, off I go to check it out.
Me: What’s going on guys?
Them: We’re playing pirates and Katelyn wants to be a princess pirate but we don’t need anymore princess pirates. We want her to be the dog.
Me: She doesn’t want to be a dog,ok? I think there’s plenty of room for one more princess pirate. Let’s play nicely and let everyone be what they want.
Them: But…..
Me: She. Can. Be.A.Princess.Pirate.If.She.Wants.
Parent of one of the children: Is everything ok in here?
And one of the children tells that parent the whole story and they reiterate that Katelyn is young and doesn’t understand they need to let her be a princess pirate. So, the group of children scowls and pouts and decide they want to play something else.
Half the time I don’t even know what to say because their play is so involved that I don’t even know if Katelyn knows what she’s talking about! All I know is they are excluding her somehow or just trying to be mean. And these are truly good, well raised children! Except for this one issue..
OR
Katelyn(crying): Mooom!! They’re playing magic carpet on the blanket but they won’t let me sit on the magic carpet too.
OR
Katelyn: They’re playing cave in that room but they pushed me out and shut the door and won’t let me back in. Waaaahh!
And off Mike or I go to try to settle the problem. It’s getting tiring. And infuriating.
My question is: What do I do? Do I let Katelyn get crushed every time, let it go and just tell her to play elsewhere? (And sometimes there isn’t anyone else to play with! Madelyn would be the only one and we all know happy Madelyn is by herself. Katelyn on the other hand, hates playing by herself). Do I step in every time and make the kids let her play only to have them pout and decide they want to play something else somewhere else? And you all know how I feel about correcting other people’s children. Katelyn actually asked me last week why they don’t like to play with her. I didn’t know what to answer!
” I’m sorry, honey. They’re just mean and spiteful children. You shouldn’t want to play with them anyway”. That’s what I wanted to say. But I didn’t. I just said ” I don’t know. You are a lot younger than them and sometimes they just want to play with kids they’re own age.Sometimes kids just don’t want to play with other kids”.
So, since my blood pressure has gone up just writing this I wanted to show you guys what our new rearrangement looks like. We are very happy with it and I think it uses our living room/dining room/ sun room space more efficiently.
You can see in the back ground the sun room before which was used as an office/play room. Sorry, this was the only shot I had of it that you could see most if it in.
Here’s the after. Our new dining room!
That shelf is getting neatened up and cleaned off a bit. Our dining room table is not longer in a high traffic area so it doesn’t get a ton of stuff dumped on it. It had gotten so bad that I got discouraged from trying to actually eat at our table. So we ate on the couch a lot!
Our old dining room has been turned into a playroom. If you’ve been reading my blog for anything length of time you know what it looked like.
The before(Christmas 08 in case you were wondering)
The after
This room is getting organized a bit more, but, yes, this is probably going to be what it looks like most of the time! And you know what? I don’t care! It’s their playroom. As long as all of that isn’t in the living room anymore I couldn’t care less what that room looks like! The girls are also thrilled with having their own t.v. No more fights over the t.v! (Between Mike and the girls. Not me, of course.)
And lastly, the new train table Madelyn got from daddy as a birthday gift. This was taken the morning after Mike set it all up. He wanted to surprise them with it when they woke up. It no longer looks like this anymore.
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? All are welcome. On any of the above.
